Those of you who follow my blog know that my close friend Bernie Berlin runs A Place to Bark animal rescue. She runs this rescue all by herself with a little help from just a couple faithful volunteers --- and she is in dire need of help for the animals. With the not-so-great economy donations are down and we all know how expensive it is for vet bills! Paul and I know that full well as I can't even mention how much money we have spent in the last 2 months on Stanley and Toby's treatments!

If it weren't for Bernie we never would have our Stanley (pictured at right!) Bernie got Stanley from animal control when he was just two weeks old. Because he and his litter mates needed to be bottle fed he would have been put down by animal control. But Bernie whisked him and his siblings away and bottle fed them every 2 hours until they got big and strong!! And now he's our baby! Thank you Bernie for our Stanley!!

Maybe instead of chocolates or flowers this Valentine's Day you'll think of the animals at A Place to Bark and make a small donation. I know that's what Paul and I will be doing! Even $5 or $10 will help! And here's the great news!! The Zoline Foundation has offered up a matching grant for 2009, If we can get to $10,000 they will match that amount! WOW!!!

You can donate via the new 6 degrees badge for A Place to Bark, below. If you have one of the old badges on your blog, please don't forget to update it with this new badge:

There are so many expenses that go into running an animal rescue. Bernie goes through 50lbs of dog food just in ONE day!! The medical expenses pile up so quickly. Just one puppy with parvo can cost $500 to save it's little life. Multiply that by a few hundred dogs and you can see how the expenses add up. Through Bernie's efforts, she saved over 500 dogs in 2008 from certain death at animal control. She needs our help so she can keep helping the animals!

Here's a video from Bernie that shows you a little more about A Place to Bark. All the doggies in this video will be available for adoption when they go to Chicago on the 17th of Feb!

FOLLOW A PLACE TO BARK ON TWITTER, FACEBOOK & YOUTUBEThe more followers a Place to Bark gets the more attention she can get from grants and companies who might be able to help. It's Free and you can help!

GET A PORTRAIT OF YOUR DOG!Artist Leigh Jackson is doing a Faces of Love fundraiser for A Place to Bark. She will paint a portrait of your doggy with no obligation to buy! I have seen Leigh's dog portraits and they are wonderful!! Click here to find out more!